Brussels starts legal action over Brexit deal ‘breach’
Britain given one month to respond but talks continue between the two sides to seek agreement over trade
BRUSSELS yesterday launched legal action against Britain for passing the Internal Market Bill, which overrides the Brexit divorce treaty – and got unlikely support from Nigel Farage.
“Whilst the EU always acts in bad faith, all they are doing today is asking Boris to keep his promises,” the Brexit Party leader said before attacking Boris Johnson for signing up to the Withdrawal Agreement in the first place.
Brussels had set Britain an end-ofmonth deadline to withdraw clauses in the Bill relating to state aid and export declarations for Northern Ireland, which it said broke the Withdrawal Agreement and international law.
“The problematic provisions have not been removed,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said. “This draft bill is by its very nature, a breach of the obligation of good faith, laid down in the Withdrawal Agreement.”
Mrs Von der Leyen said the commission had sent a letter of formal notice to the Government yesterday morning. Britain has a month to respond.
“We need to create a legal safety net to protect the integrity of the UK’S internal market … and protect the gains from the peace process,” a UK spokesman said. “We will reply to the letter in due course.”
The letter i s the first step in an “infringement proceeding”, which can ultimately end in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The EU’S top court could then impose hefty, daily fines until the law was changed.
In practice there is plenty of time for Britain to agree a trade deal with the EU before the UK is taken to the European Court of Justice. Infringement proceedings take on average 35 months to complete and both sides are aiming to get the deal done in October. The UK now has 94 infringement proceedings active against it, while France has 63, Germany 83 and Ireland 60. As part of the Withdrawal Agreement, the UK agreed to be bound by decisions of the court on cases begun before the end of the transition period on Dec 31 for four years.
Once the transition period ends, the commission could also bring separate action through enforcement mechanisms in the Withdrawal Agreement. These could result in fines or parts of any future trade deal being suspended, if a panel’s rulings are ignored.
Micheál Martin, the Irish prime minister, said the Withdrawal Agreement had to be respected.
He said Ireland was “committed to the parallel negotiations that are under way between the European Union and United Kingdom, which should lead to a sensible trade agreement”.
David Sassoli, the European Parliament president, warned that MEPS would never ratify a trade deal with Britain if the Internal Market Bill
‘Whilst the EU always acts in bad faith, all they are doing today is asking Boris to keep his promises’
remained unchanged. “The EU will remain at the table until the l ast moment,” he said. “We want to move forward but this can only happen if previous agreements are respected.”
Amnesty International welcomed the commission announcement and called on the UK to withdraw the provisions to protect the peace process in Northern Ireland.
The ninth and last scheduled round of negotiations ends today in Brussels with a meeting between Michel Barnier and David Frost, the two chief negotiators. UK officials in London were reported as being optimistic they had done enough to convince Brussels to enter intensive tunnel talks and get a deal done by the Oct 15 EU summit.
But EU officials said there was no increased optimism and diplomats warned that UK offers on fishing and state aid may not have gone far enough.